Congressman Caught In Abortion Hypocrisy To Retire At End Of His Term

Rep. Tim Murphy urged his extramarital girlfriend to get an abortion. He later voted to bar other women from terminating their pregnancies.
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Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the professedly pro-life congressman who was revealed to have urged the woman he was having an affair with to have an abortion, will not seek another term in Congress.

“After discussions with my family and staff, I have come to the decision that I will not seek reelection to Congress at the end of my current term,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “In the coming weeks I will take personal time to seek help as my family and I continue to work through our personal difficulties and seek healing. I ask you to respect our privacy during this time.”

News of Murphy’s retirement comes one day after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published text messages indicating that the congressman had pressed a woman he was having an extramarital relationship with to have an abortion. (The woman, whom Murphy admitted to having an affair with last month, ended up not being pregnant.)

In the text messages, Shannon Edwards called Murphy out on pro-life statements on his Facebook page.

“You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” she wrote.

Murphy reportedly responded by blaming the posts on his staff, claiming he “read them and winced.”

That report emerged on the same day Murphy cast a vote in favor of a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. (The bill passed Tuesday in the House by a 237-189 vote, but is unlikely to garner the 60 votes it needs to pass in the Senate.)

Murphy previously voted in favor of multiple anti-abortion bills, and has a 100 percent rating from the pro-life Family Research Council.

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